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Dec 19, 2013

2013 list

i'm so sorry i haven't posted anything in forever. this year's been really awful but also kind of good and nowhere near as bad as last year. i think it's like a transition where the last one was a complete failure. everything is okay and the world is beautiful

music-wise i don't know. i made a top 49 (50) list but it's not really in order. the important thing is that the redeemer is no. 1. if pop's a mirror then yeezus says we're fucked. if rock's dead then someone should tell the men to stop being so fucking ancient, but also don't 'cause i like it. the dead c know it. have done since the 80s! liz harris still wants us to feel bad. kurt vile cares too much about not caring. where's the downer that got me through 2011. humanbeast made s&m dinner party music that i listen to while playing sonic. colin stetson found hope. the body and pharmakon made you sweat. so did full of hell actually. full of hell are fucking mental. shaking the habitual was actually fun. tim hecker made another album people will appreciate like three years from now. fat white family reminded people that noise rock is noise rock. haim made people who never liked the replacements like tom petty.

their trick is making you believe over and over that everything's fallen apart and you're witnessing an aftermath or something that won't ever be able to rebuild itself (don't be fooled, but also totally go ahead if you can suspend your disbelief long enough to avoid suspense translating to tedium)

the year's best song and video, content-drake makes his second move away from confused/hungry-drake and the result is both more assured (no shit) and bloated than the last one. probably a future masterpiece

startling commitment to not only not having fun, but to not containing any sounds which could ever even at a stretch be used by a cornball funlover not yet subscribed to emptyset's greyscale realism (minimal industrial occurrences)

on the luca brasi story, alter egos muddy the rap-v-real-dichotomy we thought croaky voiced gates' tears just clearly burned right through. stranger than fiction's an odd case of more honesty, more trapping. my vote's on the cinematic piece. more fiction, more feels means something from a rapper part gibbs part future- his currency's the affect of his stories and his gift's his delivery. there's no point worrying if it's an act- it's all from the same place any way

both the cynic and forgiving little guy in me keep trying to convince myself that my bloody valentine could've released loveless for the first time again and due to the circumstances surrounding its (2013 mbv's) release, it would've been an anti-climax regardless. i was about ready to accept that until the last two tracks made it clear that the lazy fuckers actually have it in them to break new ground again. and so i'm hopeful but genuinely let down too. what's with the aimless loveless drafts? didn't want to 100% commit to something new? a mellow regurgitation followed by an infuriatingly promising cliffhanger? what kind of a sadist comes back after 22 years with a last time on the my bloody valentine show trailer followed by a next time on the my bloody valentine show preview?

a mild set built on the musicians' competing desires to a) come to grips with some truth about impermanence and so to be consumed/set free by this knowledge, and b) hold the fuck onto something in spite of this inevitability: it's okay, they hardly sound like they're in the right headspace to destroy rock n roll again for the moment

ode to the alienated banality of our collective existence, on through the window fernow's prurient (so often the outlet for an abstract primal release) holds himself back for everything but a brief panic attack in the middle. everything else is spirit and desire flattened and set to the rhythm of sexless repetition and empty, mocking phrases

while it's not as immediately devastating as something like hey, wait, lost cat is probably jason's prettiest, best paced, and most consistent book. chance encounters, missed connections, and the end of the fucking world...

forsman renders everything in absolute clarity through his dry and bare artwork, and so there is no opportunity for the romanticization of any of teotfw's characters, decisions, and events. it exists to make you hurt and it will do just that. i cried.

2 comments:

great to hear back from youi check your site every single dayi would prefer that you would post more often and write fucked up things, although i'm OK with you not posting anything just good to know that your still hanging in there